Top Ten Ways to Find Ten Minutes to Write

 No one should have to remind us that life is short. The Bible says it “fades quickly like grass.” In fact, the book of Proverbs is full of encouragement to make use of our time, to be wise with our gifts.

If this is true, that we should, in fact, use every day wisely, then how are we facing our dreams? Are we waiting for the perfect time? For the kids to be out of school? For the day job to fizzle out or for a really great idea?

What if we stopped waiting for the perfect time, and we act now, to get our dreams fulfilled. Realistically, of course, we can’t put in our two weeks’ notice, make a desk in the basement and create that novel the world is waiting for. There are bills to be paid, laundry to do, children to care for. But what we can do is carve out ten minutes a day.

Just ten. A little bit a day can add up quickly. How do we find the ten minutes?  Here’s some practical ways:

Turn off the TV.  Say no to the shows that if they cancelled, you wouldn’t even notice. DVR your favorites so that you can watch them another time. Wouldn’t it be terrible to get to the end of your life and discover you had never written that novel? And sadder still would be realizing that you saw every episode of UGLY BETTY.

Get up a little earlier.  I know parents don’t get much sleep as it is, but by getting up a half hour earlier, you could get a head start on your day.  You could be fully showered and dressed, or written a few lines of your poem, ran a couple of miles, or had time alone with God before the kids crawl out of bed.

Set your timer. We’ll never run out of dishes to wash or laundry to do, so why not have everything take their turn?  Set a timer for 10 minutes, carry it around the house if you need to. Do the half-to’s first, then spend 10 minutes on yourself, work on that sonnet.

Take Advantage of Waiting.  Do you have to wait for the soccer practice to be over? Do you spend a lot of time in doctor’s waiting rooms?  Pack appropriate stuff for you to do, like read a book about writing (instead of People,) do a freewrite in a notebook, or fine tune your article.

Stay Organized. Disorder steals precious time from our passions. If we spend all morning looking for Junior’s sneakers, instead of working out a scene, our frustration will only grow.  Take the extra step to put things away, keep a schedule, and eliminate distractions.

Communicate with your family.  Can your husband or mom watch the kids for an hour a week so you can get a little writing done? Explain to your children you want “play time” too.  Make an agreement: If you get 20 minutes alone, then you can have 30 minutes doing something fun together. (Just remember to keep your word.)

Trade with a friend.  You want to do research at the library on Monday.  Your girlfriend wants to go to the gym on Thursday.  Trade childcare, that way everybody gets a chance to do what they love.

Rethink Meals. Plan your meals and do the shopping in advance. The less time you spend at the grocery store, the more time you can spend on yourself. Additionally, put those appliances to work! A little time  with your crock pot and bread machine in the morning can free you later in the afternoon.

Delegate household responsibilities. Start giving kids simple things to do at around 4 1/2, gradually adding more as they get older.  If you can delegate dinner time chores, you’ve already added ten minutes to your life. Of course, you must gently teach them how to do it and reward them for a job well done.  If you have to wait for the work to be done to play, so do they. (It also won’t kill them to earn their TV, DVD, or computer time.)

Pray about your daily schedule.  Perhaps there are blindspots in your life or your household management that needs a bigger nudge.  Maybe you’re overscheduled and need to cut back for everyone’s sanity. Maybe by changing a bad habit, you could replace it with a good one.  No one knows your life better than the God who made you and filled it with blessings.  Ask him what he thinks, you might be surprised by the answer.

We may have a tendency to believe that we’ll get back to our old selves, our old passions and hobbies once the children are older (which might mean in school, out of school, in their own bedroom, or out of the house).  But I believe that those passion need not wait.

We all get the same 24 hours a day.  If we worked at  our passions 30 minutes a day, that’s 3 and half hours a week, 14+ hours a month, 168 hours a year.  Even a little bit adds up.

It might not be perfect, it might even be messy, but at least it will take us closer to our dreams.